How This Baby Was Actually Born Twice

The life of little Macy Hope was on the brink of a tumor. The doctors dared to do incredible things and saved the baby by giving birth twice.

There are many reasons why some people celebrate a second birthday: joy over a barely survived accident or illness, a particularly striking new beginning in love or work, or simply because they enjoy an extra piece of cake each year. But little Macy Hope actually has two birthdays: she was born twice from the womb.

Shock with ultrasound: a tumour as big as a balloon

Macies parents Chad and Keri McCartney didn’t suspect anything bad when they went for a routine ultrasound examination. On the contrary: They were happy to finally know the gender of their unborn baby today and had taken their other four children with them to the appointment. Instead, the shock of their lives awaited them.

“The ultrasound technician suddenly looked very worried,” Chad told today.com. “She shooed our children out of the consulting room and told us that there was a large foreign body in our baby.”

A tumor was seen on the ultrasound image that was almost as large as the unborn child. “This is incredibly rare. This may happen in one out of 40,000 births,” says Dr. Darrell Cass, who headed Macie’s operation, the phenomenon. “Most of the time, these tumors tend to remain small and have no effect on the fetus. But with Macie, he grew incredibly fast – and practically took away the blood that her body needed to grow. She would have died if nobody had intervened.”

A chance of survival of less than ten percent

Fortunately, there was a hospital within driving distance that was specialized in this particularity. Nevertheless, according to experts, her baby’s chance of survival was low and less than ten percent. Keri and Chad immediately gave their daughter a name, not knowing if she would even consciously experience it. “We named her ‘Macie Hope’ because we felt that hope was the only thing we had left,” Chad said of the terrible moments of uncertainty.

An artificial birth, just to be operated

Dr. Cass undertook the dangerous procedure, which has probably never been done before in this form: Along with two other doctors, he extracted Kari’s uterus from her belly, complete with the unborn child. According to their own statements, they carefully pulled about 80 percent of the baby’s body into the open, leaving only the head and upper body protected in the womb. They quickly removed the tumor from the baby’s abdomen – and then tried to preserve the original condition of the uterus as much as possible. “Then we could only hope that the pregnancy would come through,” said Dr. Cass about his small medical miracle.

Video: Macie Hope – a child sees the light of the world twice

The second birth and the happy ending

Little Macie fought for her life in the womb – with success. Ten weeks later, during which the child and mother recovered from the severe surgery, Macie Hope saw the light of day for the second time in her life. All traces of the tumor had disappeared, except for a scar on Marcie’s back, she was a perfectly healthy child.

For Chad and Keri, the nightmare was finally over. And for Macie Hope a life began that was almost normal – only with one more birthday cake a year.